Avengers: Infinity War

Directed by: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Run time: 149 minutes
Release date: April 27, 2018
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt

Synopsis: As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

Okay, so just to let you all know, except for the fact that I mentioned that Avengers: Infinity War made my kids cry (which I will get to in a bit), this review here will contain little to no spoilers. I don’t want to spoil what happens in this film beyond the fact that there are several times throughout the film that it made my kids (and admittedly myself as well) cry – and sometimes pretty hard. So, figure out what you can from there and I hope you enjoy the rest of my review.

To be totally honest, I feel like just saying, “Holy shit! I can’t believe what the hell just happened!” and I think I would be completely substantiated in this review, but I want to talk about two aspects of the film that I feel are the most important parts of the film, and surprisingly one of them is actually a strong part of the film despite its apparent lack thereof in the film – the story and the emotional impact of Infinity War. And I know I have said in the past how important a story, a cohesive story, is for me in all aspects of my fandom, but the broken nature of the story weaved in Infinity War is so well hidden by the film’s strengths that I have forgiven the film for this usual flaw.

You see, Avengers: Infinity War feels more like a sewn together patchwork of set and action pieces, that the film lacks some kind of cohesive statement other than the fact that all the heroes involved are trying to stop Thanos from uniting the Infinity Stones to accomplish his goal of eradicating half of the living beings in the universe. The film is not only separated into three acts, but into three separate parts following three teams, each with their own mission to accomplish – and it never really seems that they work together once they are separated at the end of Act 1 to work together again, with the exception of two teams near the end of Act 3.

Instead, Infinity War seems like a loose tying of three stories with a set story arc they kind of follow, but is pieced together by the amazing action sequences and impactful moments that make the story of Infinity War come to life. In fact, almost from Act 1, Scene 1, the action never really lets up, even as the film bounces around from place to place, characters to characters. The movie starts off at a hundred miles an hour and never slows down – not even at the end as it begins to wind down. And when the film does, it feels like you come to a dead stop in a matter of inches from full speed. But this patchwork and lack of story doesn’t hurt the film as the frenetic pace of the film keeps it from falling apart and acts as the glue that holds the film together where in other films it would have failed.

Avengers: Infinity War does a great job of keeping your attention, despite a lack of a cohesive story, that it oddly works to the films advantage. With the film never letting up in the slightest, it holds you in and keeps you vested throughout because it all is happening so fast, it all is so interesting and energetic, that it just manages to captivate fully with what is being presented on screen at any given time. Even during the film’s slower moments, it manages to just hold your attention and demands that pay heed to everything going on in the film.

This lack of substantial cohesiveness in the story would normally bother me to no avail, but because the film begins with a bang and never slows down, I found myself oddly invested in Infinity War in spite of this. In fact, I ended up never touching a single snack that I purchased at the concessions stand because I felt like I never had a chance to look away from the film lest I miss something important to what was going on.

Now, despite the lack of a true story moving the film along, there were some pivotal and emotional scenes in the film that had each of my kids in tears throughout the film – and I will admit that I cried a bit as well at times during the film. I mean, how special is this film that it had my kids, my wife and I all in tears at what was happening on screen. Almost from the beginning, my wife was in tears from what transpired in those scenes, but the real gut-punching moments start off midway through Act 2 and the film just continues to tease that more are on the way as Infinity War reaches its climax.

There were times during Infinity War that I had to hug and cradle each of my kids, sometimes with tears of my own streaming down, to get them to calm down after what they had just seen. And don’t even get me started as to how all of them felt by the end of Infinity War. I mean, oh man – that was hard. Seriously, it was emotionally hard. It doesn’t help that I saw Infinity War on one of my more down and depressive days, but I think that it would have had the same emotional impact for me no matter what kind of emotional day I was having.

I mean, my kids are avid moviegoers and can steel most films, but man – Infinity War was just such an emotional film for them that they couldn’t contain themselves. Oh, they didn’t cry loud enough to bother the others in the theater with us, but the silent tears they wept as the film progressed was simply heavy and emotional. The film manages to deliver such impactful moments despite the way I felt about the broken story that it never feels broken at all. Again, going back to how once the film starts it never lets up.

I want to say more about Avengers: Infinity War, I really do – but I feel that if I continue to talk about the film and further give my opinion on it through a more thorough review, I will start to give away aspects of the film that I feel should be experienced rather than read about. And it sucks because I really want to talk about this film in more detail… but I don’t want to give anything away to anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet. So, this is where I will stop for now, finishing up by saying that despite some flaws, Avengers: Infinity War is definitely a must-see film this summer season. It may lack in the story development department but it manages to hold your attention and interest through everything else that it does right in the film. And I personally cannot wait for the fourth Avengers film to see how it all ultimately culminates.